Best Woody Vanilla Perfumes (Vanilla Series)

I've said it before and I'll say it again. For vanilla lovers (I mean the fragrant kind and they're legion) every little twist has the potential to make them want to sample and exhaust their repertoire. It's not enough to have dessert-like baking type vanilla fragrances while dark, smoky vanilla perfumes can be too serious and demanding sometimes. For men this presents an even greater problem: in the kakistocracy of cheap, syrupy vanillas addressed to air-headed teenagers popping bubblegums, i-Pods super-glued to the ear and slouchy PVC bags dragged above butt-crack revealing jeans, finding something that excels and is gentlemanly at the same time becomes an exercise in futility.

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So, yes, a more sophisticated category playing on the register of B flat minor is apropos: appearing calm, composed, unruffled, though there is something more volatile hiding under the lid.
(If you'd like to see some E-flat minor vanillas -I feel weird just typing that, can vanillas ever be eccentric?- you have to wait for the next installment in the Vanilla Series.)

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Annick Goutal Vanille Exquise: angelica and guaiacwood make this vanilla very unusual with a melancholy backdrop
Ava Luxe Vanilla Musk: though purported to be musky, this isn't funky, but rather woody, milky and with a nice coziness that is not foodie
Bvlgari Black: brawny, with rubber notes that become gentle very soon
Dior Homme Intense: a masculine vanilla, with a nice elegant background that keeps it from becoming nauseating sweet
Kiehl's Vanilla and Cedarwood: austerity meets vanilla, there you go little miss!
Korres Vanilla Freesia Lychee: don't mind the "components" on the label, this smells of chypre-woody with a slice of Coco Mademoiselle
L'Artisan Parfumeur Dzing: this is the smell of antique, used book stores, soft and animalic and very very intelligent indeed. A cult favorite composed by Olivia Giacobetti.
Le Labo Vanille 44: this Paris city exclusive is poised between a delicate French madeleine and smoky black tea
Montale Boise Vanille: many of the Montale fragrances are orientalized, but this is maybe the most approachable.
Parfumerie Generale Cadjmere: the Mediterranean woods of myrtle and cypress join Brazilian rosewood to put a decidedly sombre feel to vanilla (one of the beloved ingredients for Pierre Guillaume).
Rochas Man: a unisex take on woody vanilla with a hint of coffee, marketed to men but enjoyed by women as well, and composed by calorific "dishes" master chef Maurice Roucel
Serge Lutens Un Bois Vanille: the reference woody vanilla, it infuses the woody spicy blend of Feminite du Bois with a silky veil of vanilla fondant.

Do you like woody vanillas? Which are your favorites?

Le Labo Vanille 44: fragrance review

To optically pair Vanille 44 by niche brand Le Labo with Luis Buñuel's Un Chien Andalou (1928) is a natural: The fragrance is illusory and surreal, like a razor slashing the eye ball that never actually happens. It's sexy too, in that perverted way of Buñuel's young novice about to take her vows led astray by her widowed uncle. How can a childhood aroma like vanilla do this stuff? Is there nothing sacred? Read on.

Vanille 44 weaves the cool, almost sour scent of frankincense (which naturally has citrus facets, therefore mixing well with bergamot and mandarin) into the tarry-smelling carapace of smoky woods, like gaiacwood. This tar-like inky note is due to pipol, a volatile component that smells of black smoky tea. But the treatment is diaphanous, complex veils of chiffon material rather than heavy damask, as one would have typically expected from an oriental fragrance based on this commonly thought of as aphrodisiac raw material, vanilla.

Le Labo's Vanille 44 is an atypical vanilla hidden beneath layers of other essences, veils of Salome, with a pronounced woody-musky trail (muscenone is a musk molecule) that would never have small children or those "too nice" co-workers with scrunchies on their hair atop bulky mohair sweaters to exclaim "you smell nice!". It's not that Vanille 44 doesn't smell nice, it's that it's not the instantly familiar sweet, cozy, foody vanilla these target groups are accustomed to. On the other hand, I don't know whether that super sophisticated group, who upturn their noses upon hearing your mother still likes Calvin Klein Eternity (which you faithfully buy for her every Christmas), would love it either. It's good stuff, created by one of the very best, perfumer Alberto Morillas (who has given us mega-hits from Kenzo Flower to Aqua di Gio for men for Armani) but is it that uncommon to warrant the huge price (500$ for 100ml)? I believe Lutens, Montale and Guerlain have already set foot in the smoky, woody or boozy vanilla territory respectively and not come back with losses. Vanille 44 is a good, mysterious fragrance, an oddball vanilla fragrance for adults of both sexes, but you need to forget about the name as it's as close to vanilla pods as Falco would be to the real Amadeus.

Le Labo presents it thus: "We all know that Paris is the city of love (and hence sex). But Paris is also the city of Vanille 44! We also know by now that our Rose 31 does not smell of only rose, that our Iris 39 does not smell of just iris, and that the number is as important (if not more) than the name of ingredient to the left of it (I am not a number !). Well our Vanille 44 does not smell of just Vanilla. At least it doesn’t smell of vanilla straight away. We could say that this theme is a subtle ambery incensy woody sexy note that once acquainted with your premium pashmina sweater will release the finest of the vanilla bourbons that you’ve experienced. It’s vanilla disguised."

You can say that again. 

Notes for Vanille 44 by Le Labo:
Natural bergamot, incense, mandarin, gaiac, vanille bourbon, muscenone, pipol, hedione

Le Labo Vanille 44 is a Paris city-exclusive (available at Colette), retailing at $290 for 50ml, but only for the month of November it is globally available at Luckyscent and on the official Le Labo site.

Related reading on Perfume Shrine:  Le Labo reviews & news ,Vanilla fragrances reviews

In the interests of disclosure, the review is based on a sample vial sent to me by the company.